Random Science News Thread

[peter]

The 'quantum computing' breakthrough is yet another vindication that the weirder shit suggested by quantum mechanical theory [like the universe 'splitting' into infinite pathways in which all possibilities are realised etc] are infact true. Every time we make a discovery like this [as well as every time we turn on the tv] - we demonstrate it to be so!

[Vraith]

I think this is a really good article for many reasons.
Everyone should read it.
Also, everyone should play around with the research game in the article---it's fascinating [and easy, it's just clicking boxes and seeing what happens].

As a teaser, this:

If you follow the headlines, your confidence in science may have taken a hit lately. [[snip]]

Peer review? More like self-review.[[snip]]
Scientific journals? Not exactly a badge of legitimacy,[[snip]]

Revolutionary findings? Possibly fabricated.[[snip]]

Taken together, headlines like these might suggest that science is a shady enterprise that spits out a bunch of dressed-up nonsense. But I’ve spent months investigating the problems hounding science, and I’ve learned that the headline-grabbing cases of misconduct and fraud are mere distractions. The state of our science is strong, but it’s plagued by a universal problem: Science is hard — really fucking hard.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-isnt-broken/

[Avatar]

Haha, yeah, I saw that stuff about randomly generated "research" papers being accepted for payment.

--A

[ussusimiel]

I was driving on the motorway/highway today and I came across a 'ghost' traffic jam that I encounter regularly. I've been meaning to check the science behind the phenomenon for a while, so I finally did. Here's one of the things I found:

• - Traffic Ghost Hunting

My intuition had been that it was a braking/reaction-time thing and it turns out that it is partially that, but mostly it is the distance between vehicles relative to the speed at which you are travelling.

And it is only behaviour before the fact that can help alleviate the phenomenon. It also looks like modern technology will likely be able to provide a good solution to it in the not so distant future. Science will get to slay another 'phantom'!

u.

[wayfriend]

Those happen where I live all the time. Except they can be 10, 20, 30 minutes of traffic inching along. When you get to the end ... there was nothing there!

They usually happen in the same place. And I am sure it's caused by tailing too closely, and - probably worse - people changing lanes and squeezing between two cars without enough room between them. (They squeeze in, then they hit the breaks to back off from the car now in front! And, ironically, they do it because that lane looked a teensy bit faster!)

I had always hoped someone would confirm that this happens. Thanks!

[Avatar]

Both Syl and I have posted this one in the past:

trafficwaves.org/

Pretty good analysis of the phenomenon.

--A

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Scientific American had a published paper on traffic waves back in the late 1980s; several principles from fluid dynamics (specifically ones governing liquids flowing through pipes) were found to be applicable to traffic flow. The traffic waves which happen for no observable reason are quantum in nature.

[Avatar]

You could solve 90% of traffic jams by mandating a following distance, and equipping cars with range finders and governors that automatically maintain it.

--A

[Vraith]

Ok, here is an Ask Me Anything with Stephen Hawking just out.

Unfortunately, it's reddit, so you'll have to do a lot of scrolling to see his answers to questions and skip everyone else's two-cents.
Maybe there's another place where it is edited, or maybe there's a way to sort it out/block others comments, if so, I don't know it.
If I were smart, I would try to find out. But I'm apparently not.

I haven't read it yet, the topic was generally supposed to be tech and how to make it more human. Here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/commen ... a_answers/

[Hashi Lebwohl]

You could solve 90% of traffic jams by mandating a following distance, and equipping cars with range finders and governors that automatically maintain it.

--A

I think in Germany the highway patrol has cameras set up to measure your speed and the distance between you and the car in front of you; if you are following too closely they'll just take a picture of you and send you the citation in the mail.

Cars can be equipped with auto-braking mechanisms as well as distance finders so it could be possible to make cars that will not follow closer than, say, 10m behind the next car in highway conditions. Obviously, for in-town driving the minimum distance would have to be smaller but 5m is close enough.

That being said, do we really want cars to babysit us like that? "no no no, you naughty driver--you are following too closely behind the car in front of you".

[Avatar]

Usually I would laugh and say no, but there are no real downsides here...both accidents and traffic jams would be prevented on a large scale, we could travel by road faster and more safely.

Some jigging would need to be done to allow for merging and overtaking, but overall I'd be in favour.

(SA has one of the highest rates of road death in the world.)

--A

[Hashi Lebwohl]

I, also, would normally balk at letting the car do all the driving but if the car is only maximizing the likelihood that all the passengers arrive at their destination safely then I can accept that compromise. I would certainly trust the car to avoid accidents more than I would trust my fellow drivers--those people are morons who ought not be behind the wheel.

[Vraith]

I would certainly trust the car to avoid accidents more than I would trust my fellow drivers--those people are morons who ought not be behind the wheel.

I'm not sure I've got this exactly right, and don't feel like looking.
But apparently one of the self-driving corps---I think it's the Google team---is trying to figure out how to make their software more like jerks/morons in at least some cases.
They had a problem at 4-way intersections. The car knows all the right of way rules. But it also detects when other cars make little movements.
So at 4-ways, it would never get through. It detected people drivers moving [either breaking the right of way or doing the creep-up] and would stop to let them go. As long as other cars kept coming, it was stuck.
[[not EVERY time, of course...but often enough]].

Yea, the spacing thing---everyone should know that space is good, but they don't seem to.
They also vastly overestimate how much time driving faster will save them, and vastly underestimate how much it increases the odds they crash.

[peter]

[still on a driving theme] Beware of flying DeLorean's in the next twenty-four hours; tomorrow is the date [21-10-15] that Marty and Doc travel forward to in 1985's Back to the Future.

[wayfriend]

Hey Gap fans: Asteroid mining 5 years away, expert says.

[Vraith]

Hey Gap fans: Asteroid mining 5 years away, expert says.

There's actually a database with [rough] estimations of value, profit margins, accessibility.

www.asterank.com/

[wayfriend]

Hey Gap fans: Asteroid mining 5 years away, expert says.

There's actually a database with [rough] estimations of value, profit margins, accessibility.

www.asterank.com/

... and there's actually a UMC.


United Mining & Mineral Co., Ltd.

All we need now is the Dragon.

[ussusimiel]

Came across this in the last few days:

• - Injectable brain implant spies on individual neurons

Don't know if it's been tagged here before, but for someone interested in SF, like me, this is the first indication I have seen of the potential for a 'neural lace'.

u.

[Cord Hurn]

From ussusimiel's link:
"There is huge potential for techniques that can study the activity of large numbers of neurons for a long period of time with only minimal damage, says Jens Schouenborg, head of the Neuronano Research Centre at Lund University in Sweden, who has developed a gelatin-based ‘needle’ for delivering electrodes to the brain3. But he remains sceptical of this technique: “I would like to see more evidence of the implant’s long-term compatibility with the body,” he says. Rigorous testing would be needed before such a device could be implanted in people. But, says Lieber, it could potentially treat brain damage caused by a stroke, as well as Parkinson’s disease."

I'm encouraged by this new technology, and the suffering it can relieve. Thank you for sharing this, Uss.!

[ussusimiel]

You're welcome, CH! The potential for treating brain-related conditions could be huge, and if they were able to address something like Alzheimer's it would be an unbelievable gift.

I have lots of issue with science, but stuff like this is where it is at its best and sometimes jawdroppingly amazing.

u.